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About Me

Hello! Thank you so much for visiting me in the Attic, it's lovely to see you. My name is Lucy and I'm a happily married Mum with three children. We live in a cosy terraced house on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales in England which we are slowly renovating and making home. I have a passion for crochet and colour and love to share my creative journey. I hope you enjoy your peek into my colourful little world x

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April 05, 2012

Easter Blossom

Oooooooh I've had a happy, wonderful creative time with myself this morning! I suddenly got my mojo back after having an unintentional hooky-hibernation in recent weeks, and it's been really great to feel that old buzz of inspiration and productivity return.

Both Little People came down with The Bug on Tuesday, it's not been a great week. There's been lots of nasty mess, heaps of extra laundry, miserable offspring, and one worn out Mumma. It's also meant that I had kind of forgotten about Easter until this morning when it suddenly occurred to me where we were at. I really love to decorate for Easter, and I have an old shoebox labelled EASTER containing all sorts of decorative bits and bobs for the occasion. I was really excited to retrieve it from the Attic eaves this morning, especially as for some unknown reason I didn't do Easter decs last year (why ever not? I don't recall). The Little People said they couldn't remember a single thing that was inside the box, but when I opened the lid and got everything out, there were lots of excited shouts of recognition. It was a treat to watch them rediscover and reconnect with past memories.

I really wanted to make something new for this year though, especially as my decorative set up was going to be slightly different. Usually I hang my decs onto some fake cherry blossom in a jug on a side table (see here) but this year I have my jug and twigs already installed on the mantel. The twigs had remained bare after the Christmas Bauble treatment, so it gave me a lovely excuse to hook up a little Springtime colour for them. Inspired by my recent love affair with early Spring blossom, I got out my small stash of Rico Creative cotton and designed a simple six petalled blossom flower.

I used the pale yellow yarn with a darning needle to add some decorative stitching to the centre. I really enjoyed the simplicity of working the stitching, it was incredibly soothing to do this same repetitive thing twenty times over.

I left out the darker colours of Rico cotton and stuck with the mid and light colours....don't they look pretty all nestled together? Very satisfyingly springlike.

This flower is very quick and simple to make, I'm going to write the pattern out at the end of this post if you want to whip some up.

Before darning the end in at the back of each flower I made a small loop so that they'd be easy to hang straight onto my twigs. I did the same thing when I made the teeny tiny hearts and it worked a treat.

Ooooohh, there you go look.......................ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!

One decorated Easter Mantel.

I absolutely L♥VE it.

I hung some little wooden painted eggs amongst the hooky flowers, and arranged some other bits along the mantel :: spotty wooden eggs, some rather odd looking squished up fluffy chicks, a little woven nest, and a fair few bunnies.

I also re-hung my heart garland as I've really been missing it of late. I took it down at Christmas then never put it back up as I intended to try and stiffen the hearts with some pva glue to stop them curling in on themselves. Needless to say I didn't get round to it so they stayed in my desk drawer. I did briefly wonder whether it might be time for a change anyways, but no, no change. Hanging them up again has made me realise how much a part of our home they had become. I love them as much as I did when I first made them four years ago (and yes, I know someone will ask...the pattern can be found here)

Something new and lovely hopped into the Attic for Eastertime yesterday, did you spot her perched up at the end there? I've called her Miss Fleur and she is my latest crush. Isn't she aDORable???? Such beautiful little flowery britches (with matching bag) and the cutest little granny square jumper to tie the whole outfit together. She is just lovely, look at her darling little face..............

......oh smoochy kisses to you Miss Fleur, I love you so much! She was made by my wonderful Talented Friend, the one who loves to stitch, stitch, stitch. She knits and crochets as well, but it's the stitchy-stuff of hers that just blows me away. Please do go and have a peek at her blog (Patchwork Chickens), you can see all of the other Easter Hares that she made, amongst many other gorgeous things. I keep trying to persuade my Talented Friend to get some of her wares into an Etsy shop, she would do well with them don't you think?

Aside from the germs and resulting yuckiness this week, it's still been a lovely, quiet, stay-home time. I do sooooo love my home. Most of it is in a bit of a mess at the moment to tell the truth, but my shelves are NOT messy, hooozah!!!! Lovely, lovely, lovely to have this one wall looking seasonal and hunkydory, it's making me very happy. I keep walking out the room, then back in again so that I can appreciate the impact of my new Easter arrangement :o)

Right then....before I finish and go and eat some chocolate, I'd like to share the pattern for my Easter Blossom. It's just going to be words as I don't have the time to do pictures, but it is very straightforward I promise you. First a quick summary of the stitches, I'm working in UK terms as follows ::

sl st [slip stitch] :: insert hook, yarn over, pull the loop back through the stitch, then through the loop on your hook.

dc [double crochet] :: insert hook, yarn over, pull the loop back through the stitch (two loops on hook), yarn over and pull through both loops on hook (note :: this is equivalent to the US sc stitch)

tr [treble] :: yarn over, insert hook, yarn over, pull the loop back through the stitch (three loops on hook), yarn over and pull through two loops on hook (two loops left on hook), yarn over and pull through remaining two loops (note :: this is equivalent to the US dc stitch)

❀ BLOSSOM FLOWER ❀

To begin, chain 4 and join with a sl st to form a ring.

:: Round 1 ::

Chain 1 (counts as 1 dc), then work 5 dc into the ring. Join with a sl st in first chain to close the round. You should be able to clearly identify 6 stitches to work out of for the next round.

:: Round 2 ::

Sl St into the first st, chain 2, work 1 tr and 1 dc into same stitch.

**Sl st into next stitch, chain 2, work 1 tr and 1 dc into same stitch**

Repeat between ** four more times until you have 6 petals in total.

Make a sl st into the base of the first ch-2 to close the round. Fasten off.

Don't forget to leave a long enough tail end to create a hanging loop if the blossom is destined for twigs!

Hi Lucy, You have inspired me with the flowers, bag and all the bits and bobs. I have been crocheting for two months now and have lots of thanks for your instructions (easy ones) and the lovely things you make.

I have been trying to subscribe to your page but the links do not work?

Hello, I am falling for crochet as I scroll through your blog....These tiny flowers may become a small wallet, I may sew them together and add a zip and lining. Or the Japanese flower shawl, not sure yet which one will win..... Your color sense is spot on!

I wonder if you would allow me to use some of your images in a blog post where I am in search of inspiration to move away from my knitting and give crochet a go?

I'm using Google translator to write this post, expect him to do this correctly...
I love your work, I'm your fan.
I have a blog too and I'll be happy with your visit.
My last job was crocheting a bird I have seen here in its work, to put a link in my message to your own blog.
kisses